Eagles' Kelly faces penalty only if he leaves NFL prematurely

The NCAA makes it harder for Kelly to return to college coaching for the next 18 months.

June 26, 2013|By Nick Fierro, Of The Morning Call

The NCAA ruled Wednesday that the University of Oregon football program committed recruiting violations during Chip Kelly's tenure, but it probably won't have much effect on the new Philadelphia Eagles head coach.

The only thing it will do to Kelly is that any NCAA football program wishing to hire him over the next 18 months will have to appear with him before the Committee on Infractions and "show-cause" why it should hire him and then possibly face the same restrictions on Oregon's program.

Oregon was found to have committed recruiting violations during Kelly's tenure as head coach, which began in 2009 and ended when the Eagles hired him in January.

Oregon avoided a more serious bowl ban, but was slapped with a three-year probation that includes one less scholarship in each of the next three seasons.

"Now that the NCAA has concluded their investigation and penalized the University of Oregon and its football program, I want to apologize to the University of Oregon, all of its current and former players and their fans," Kelly said in a statement. "I accept my share of responsibility for the actions that led to the penalties.

"As I have stated before, the NCAA investigation and subsequent ruling had no impact on my decision to leave Oregon for Philadelphia. I have also maintained throughout that I had every intention to cooperate with the NCAA's investigation, which I did. I do expect the University of Oregon and its football program to continue to thrive at a high level. They are a talented and resilient group of coaches and players, and I'm sure they will attempt to put today's news behind them very quickly and move forward as they prepare for the 2013 season."

Kelly is not expected to face any discipline by the NFL.

"We are not familiar yet with the details and prefer not to comment," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said, though the statement certainly left open the possibility that ultra-vigilant commissioner Roger Goodell could act after collecting more facts.

The league did nothing to Pete Carroll when he parachuted out of a disgraced USC program into the head coaching job of the Seattle Seahawks early in 2010. Around six months later, USC was officially found to have committed numerous NCAA rules and recruiting violations and hit with severe penalties that included a two-year bowl ban, a loss of 30 scholarships and forfeiture of some victories, one of which was a BCS championship game.

That would seem to make it difficult for Goodell to justify any kind of punishment for Kelly, who went 46-7 with a pair of major bowl victories in his four seasons with the Ducks.

Consultant Jim Tressel was suspended by the Indianapolis Colts for the first six games of 2011 immediately after being fired by Ohio State (resulting in, among other things, a bowl ban in 2012 and a five year show-cause penalty for Tressel), but the NFL officially had nothing to do with that.

Among the other sanctions on Oregon:

•A reduction of official paid football visits from 56 to 37 and permissible football evaluation days from 168 to 144 for the next three years.

•A ban on subscriptions to recruiting services during the probation period.

Oregon had been under investigation for a $25,000 payment in 2010 to Willie Lyles, who operated Complete Scouting Services, a Houston-based recruiting service. Lyles, who had connections to an Oregon recruit, provided free lodging and cash to a prospect.

The NCAA ruled that Kelly wasn't aware of Lyles' actions. However it did hold Kelly accountable for making sure his program was in compliance.

Oregon offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich was promoted to head coach in January, after Kelly accepted the Eagles job.